FIG. 1 is an illustration of a conventional computer-telephony integration (CTI) system. An incoming call 60 is received by a switch 90. The switch passes information about the call to a CTI server 80. The information passed may include, for example, the calling line identification (CLI), sometimes known as automatic number identification (ANI), and/or the dialed number identification. Switch 90 is also provided with an interactive voice response (IVR) unit 95 which may be used to obtain additional information from the caller, for example an account number or such like. This additional information may also be passed to CTI server 80. In some implementations, various messages may be played to the caller as part of the initial call handling, for example to allow a caller to specify the type of desired action—e.g. make a new booking, amend a previous booking, or some other query. Caller input in response to this information can then be used subsequently in determining how to handle the call.
The switch 90 routes the call through the telephone network 101 to a telephone 121 belonging to an agent 120. For example, the switch may route a particular incoming call 60 to agent 120B having telephone 121B. The CTI server 80 may instruct the switch 90 which particular agent to forward the incoming call to. In other implementations, the switch 90 may make this decision through some other mechanism, such as agent availability (and notify the CTI server 80 accordingly).
In addition to telephone 121, each agent 120 is also provided with a workstation 122. The CTI server 80 has access to a customer relationship management (CRM) database 70. The CTI server 80 can use information about a particular call provided by switch 90 to look up information relating to the caller in the CRM database 70. For example, this information may represent the name and address of a party associated with a particular calling line identification, as well as any information about previous orders that this person may have made, and so on. The CTI server 80 can then provide this information to the workstation 122 associated with the agent 120 who receives the call in order to assist the agent in handling the caller. For example if the incoming call 60 is to be routed to telephone 121B of agent 120B, then the CTI server accesses information about the caller from CRM database 70 and forwards this information to corresponding workstation 1223B.
If no agent is free to handle incoming call 60, switch 90 may put the caller in a queue. While the caller is in this queue, the switch may provide the caller with marketing messages, information about queue status, and so on. These messages may be sourced from IVR 95 or switch 90 itself.
In some circumstances, the call may be handled automatically without having to reach an agent 120. For example, a caller may ring to obtain an account balance. The IVR system 95 may be able to obtain the account number from the caller, perform appropriate security checks (e.g. accepting an input PIN), access the account balance from a server 201 via a link (not shown) between IVR 95 and computer network 102, and then play out the relevant balance to the caller.
Call centres having CTI such as shown in FIG. 1 have been around for many years. In many cases the system shown in FIG. 1 is internal to a particular organisation. In other words, switch 90 represents a PBX and telephone network 101 represents the internal telephone network of the organisation. Likewise computer network 102 represents the internal computer network (e.g. intranet) of the organisation.
It is also very common for organisations to outsource CTI and/or call centre operations to some third party. This strategy may be adopted by very small organisations, which may only have one incoming telephone line, as well as by larger organisations. In such cases in the architecture of FIG. 1, the switch 90 may be located within the public switch telephone network (PSTN)—i.e. telephone network 101 may be part of the PSTN. Likewise computer network 102 may be the internet or some other public computer network.
One problem with this third party call centre model concerns the provision of access for the CTI service provider to the CRM database of the client (i.e. the organisation for whom the hosted telephone service is being provided). For example, the CTI server may now have to support access to potentially multiple different CRM database formats for multiple different clients, adding significantly to the cost and complexity of the CTI server itself.